The present invention relates to a container for liquid cosmetics, such as mascara, eyeliner, and lip-gloss. More specifically, it relates to a container for liquid cosmetics which comprises in the container body a detachable applicator, such as a brush, and a drawing member having an opening for drawing surplus cosmetics adhered to the applicator and is capable of controlling the quantity of cosmetics adhered to the applicator by adjusting an aperture of the opening of the drawing member.
With regard to this kind of container for liquid cosmetics which is capable of adjusting an aperture of the drawing member, several kinds of containers have already been known to the public. Among them, there are many containers having constitution in which an aperture of the drawing member is varied by vertically moving inside the container an aperture controlling section to be in contact with the drawing member. However those containers for liquid cosmetics have such a drawback that when twisting on or off a cap, the aperture controlling section unnecessarily makes a vertical movement resulting from torque applied to the aperture controlling section, thereby varying the aperture.
Further, in other applications disclosing containers in which an aperture of the drawing member is varied, these containers also have such a defect in common that when a cap is put, the aperture controlling section makes an unprepared rotation by the tightening force or at the final tightening step, whereby the aperture is varied.
An object of the present invention is to provide a container for liquid cosmetics which has a drawing member capable of controlling an aperture for drawing surplus cosmetics adhered to an applicator, is capable of controlling quantity of cosmetics adhered to the applicator, has simple structure and a small outer diameter, is excellent in user friendliness because an aperture controlling ring does not rotate when a user rotates a cap with a bottle section held at the time of daily use, and is also excellent in design and applicability to additive decoration.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. Hei 10-99128 and Hei 11-4714 published by the Japanese Patent Office are examples of such an invention. However the present invention is an improvement of the inventions described above, and it provides a container for liquid cosmetics which can maintain sealing performance that can also be used for high volatile liquid cosmetics, such as eyeliner liquid and mascara liquid, is user friendly and has safe functions.
In order to achieve the object described above, a container for liquid cosmetics comprising: a container body and a cap section, wherein the container body comprising: a bottle section in which liquid cosmetics are filled up, an aperture controlling ring which is rotatably engaged around an axis of a tip of the bottle section and provided means for regulating a rotation start position and a rotation limit position, a neck section which is unrotatably and slidably provided in the bottle section, moved in an axial direction resulting from relative rotations of the aperture controlling ring and the bottle section and restricted movement in a axial direction by the means for regulating a rotation start position and a rotation limit position, an elastic body which is fixed in the container body, varied an aperture of a center opening of the elastic body from contact of an aperture controlling section provided at a tip of the neck section with the elastic body to control quantity of application of the liquid cosmetics adhered to an applicator, and the cap section provided a stick-shaped member having the applicator at its tip.
Further, a distance of movement in an axial direction of the neck section, which is spirally engaged with the aperture controlling ring, at the time of expanding a size of the center opening of the elastic body in the container body from a predetermined minimum size to a predetermined maximum size is determined based on quantity of rotations of the aperture controlling ring from a rotation start position to a rotation limit position.
When liquid cosmetics are used, the cap is removed from the container body in which the liquid cosmetics are filled up, and the liquid cosmetics are applied to eyelids, eyelashes, lips, or the like using the applicator fixed to a tip of the stick-shaped member which is stuck to the cap. The aperture controlling ring is rotatably put at the front of the bottle section. When the liquid cosmetics are used, if the aperture controlling ring is rotated before the cap is removed, the neck section engaged with the cap will move in an axial direction and the aperture controlling section which is a tip of the neck section will come into contact with the elastic body fixed at an upper part of the inside of the container body, whereby a dimensional diameter of the center opening of the elastic body is varied. Thus, quantity of the liquid cosmetics adhered to the applied part can be controlled according to a size of the center opening when the liquid cosmetics are used.
In order to simplify a degree of variation in an aperture of the center opening so that users can easily tell, the rotation start position and the rotation limit position of the aperture controlling ring are regulated and an aperture of the center opening of the elastic body is minimized at the rotation start position, whereby quantity of the liquid cosmetics adhered to the applicator becomes minimum. On the other hand, an aperture of the center opening of the elastic body is maximized at the rotation limit position, and quantity of the liquid cosmetics adhered to the applicator can easily be maximum. Further, since the neck section is installed inside the bottle section in a manner that it cannot rotate and can slide in an axial direction, at the time of daily use of the liquid cosmetics in a manner that the cap is rotated with the bottle section held, the aperture controlling ring is not torqued at all and the neck section does not move, whereby the aperture is never varied.
As described above, due to the aperture controlling ring, the dimensional diameter of the center opening of the elastic body is varied and the quantity of adhesion can easily be controlled. And the neck section arranged in the container body can move in an axial direction due to spiral engagement of a male screw formed at an outer diameter of the neck section and a female screw provided at an inner circumference of the aperture controlling ring.
With regard to a range of movement of the neck section in an axial direction, since an aperture of the center opening is varied when the aperture controlling section which is a tip of the neck section comes into contact with the elastic body as described above, the dimensional diameter of the center opening is varied from a minimum to a maximum. More specifically, the size of the center opening of the elastic body is set to a predetermined minimum at the rotation start position of the aperture controlling ring, and when the aperture controlling ring rotates, the neck section moves and the center opening of the elastic body gradually expands, whereby the size becomes a predetermined maximum at the rotation limit position. In other words, a distance of the movement of the neck section in an axial direction, which causes the center opening of the elastic body to vary, is determined based on quantity of rotations of the aperture controlling ring, whereby users can easily distinguish the quantity of liquid cosmetics adhered based on the quantity of rotations of the aperture controlling ring.
Further, an angle of rotations of the aperture controlling ring and the bottle section controlled by the means for regulating of the aperture controlling ring is 360 degrees or less. It is arranged such that the quantity of rotations will be restricted to 360 degrees or less if the aperture controlling ring comes into contact with the bottle section.
There is provided the container having means for indicating an angle of rotations of the aperture controlling ring and the bottle section from a rotation start position to a rotation limit position in a manner which allows a user to distinguish the quantity of rotations. Quantity of liquid cosmetics can easily be selected within the range of the rotation start position and the rotation limit position, namely, a minimum quantity and a maximum quantity.
The distinguishable indication means carry out selective indications using figures or patterns provided on the bottle section which are visible through a through hole made on the aperture controlling ring. By giving indications in a visible form, for example figures one through ten or an inclined zone which is diagonally printed with the color changed, the users can easily adjust the quantity of application.
The stick-shaped member having the applicator is provided with a thin diameter section, a taper section, and a section inserted-into neck section; a contact section of the center opening of the elastic body provided in the container body is always in contact with a position in an area covering from the thin diameter section to the taper section; and the section inserted-into neck section of the stick-shaped member can go in and out of the neck section leaving a minimum space between the section inserted-into neck section and an inner circumference of a through hole of the neck section. The thin diameter section or the taper section is installed at the stick-shaped member which is fixed to the cap and has an applicator at its tip. The center opening of the elastic body always comes into contact with the thin diameter section or the taper section, and between the neck section through hole and the section inserted-into neck section which is a rear part of the stick-shaped member and goes in and out of the neck section through hole, only a slide clearance with a minimum space is provided. Thus, it is possible to restrain a reverse drawing phenomenon at the time of using mascara which will be described hereinafter and to keep the stick-shaped member clean.
In the container for liquid cosmetics container for a container body in which liquid cosmetics are filled up; and a cap section to which a stick-shaped member having an applicator at its tip is fixed, wherein the container body comprising: a bottle section whose element is an elastic body for drawing the applicator; an aperture controlling ring which is rotatably engaged with the bottle section; and a neck section which moves in an axial direction resulting from relative rotations of the aperture controlling ring and which forms at its tip an aperture controlling section to control an aperture of a center opening of the elastic body; and further a sealing member for interrupting ventilation is provided between an outer circumference of the neck section and an inner circumference of the bottle section. The sealing member, such as an O-ring, is provided between the outer circumference of the neck section and the inner circumference of the bottle section, inflow of air from a sliding part between the outer circumference of the neck section and the inner circumference of the bottle section is shut out so that volatilization of the liquid cosmetics is prevented.
The details as well as other features and advantages of this invention are set forth in the remainder of the specification and are shown in the accompanying drawings.